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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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BY WAY OF DECEPTION 249his support. This army was attached to the Syrian army,prompting a saying within the Mossad that the "Syrians will fightIsrael to the last Palestinian."The East Bloc countries, always willing to supply the Palestinianswith weapons, nonetheless dealt through formal channels. Thatmeant for them that, in 1981, if Arafat wanted weapons theywould be sent to the PLA.That was fine as far as it went. But after the Munich massacre in1972, Arafat had formed a special personal security force. At PLOheadquarters in Beirut, Arafat could reach his special force ontelephone extension 17. Hence, the name <strong>of</strong> this unit becameForce 17, at the time headed by Abu Tayeb, and varying innumber between 200 and 600 crack fighters. Arafat also reliedheavily on Abu Zaim, his head <strong>of</strong> security and intelligence.* * *For the Mossad, the most important player in all <strong>of</strong> this was a mannamed Durak Kasim, Arafat's driver and personal bodyguard andmember <strong>of</strong> Force 17. Kasim had been recruited as a Mossad agentin 1977 when he was studying philosophy in England. A greedyman, he was reporting to them almost daily, sending messagesthrough a burst radio communications system, receiving $2,000 areport. He also telephoned information and mailed it periodically,and once even showed up at the "submarine" — the Mossad'sunderground station in Beirut — a reckless thing to do, and arude shock to his operator that Kasim would know the address.During the siege <strong>of</strong> Beirut, Kasim was actually with Arafat,reporting to the Mossad from inside PLO headquarters.Kasim was Arafat's closest personal aide. He was the one whohelped find boys for Arafat. Certainly homosexuality is againstIslamic beliefs, but given the way <strong>of</strong> life, it's not that uncommon.It's not as badly regarded as it is in the West. The Mossad didn'tactually have any pro<strong>of</strong> to support the claim that Arafat likedteenage boys. They had no photos, nothing. It could have beenjust another way to discredit Arafat; they did that with many otherArab leaders, saying how they lived the good life by skimming <strong>of</strong>fthe system. But

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